A forthcoming exhibition Lost Gardens of London opens at the Garden Museum this month (23 Oct-2 Mar). The gardens range from the capital’s humble allotments and defunct squares to amateur botanical gardens, princely pleasure grounds, artists’ gardens and private menageries, gardens that have either vanished or that have changed beyond recognition. Lost Gardens seeks to remind us of what a precious asset gardened greenspace is, how it has contributed over the centuries to the quality of life and well-being of generations of inhabitants of the Metropolis, and that it still needs protection.

A Bloomsbury square, Endsleigh Gardens, was a casualty of redevelopment in the early 20th century, and only a small green patch by the Friends building on Euston Rd is a reminder of the lost garden.  Endsleigh Gardens disappeared beneath Friends House. The public outcry over the loss of these gardens led to a Royal Commission in 1927, which resulted in the London Squares Preservation Act of 1931. The Act gave protection to 461 squares and other green enclosures, ensuring that they could not be built upon and were preserved for leisure and recreation. About one fifth of the enclosures protected by the Act were by this time in public hands. Alas, the Act has so far not had the teeth to prevent building in Victoria Tower Gardens, a protected space by the river, despite a long campaign.

The exhibition is curated by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, landscape designer, historian and author. He also wrote the foreword to the Association of Bloomsbury Squares and Gardens book Bloomsbury’s Squares and Gardens, available from Skoob books in the Brunswick or online.